San Diego County, San Diego Rat Control Situation:
Hi David, Is a UV blacklight still useful, exterior-wise, if it rains after the rodents leave their urine stains? I am in the process of performing exterior maintenance to better exclude my roof rats. 1) I have a 25 year old cedar shake roof in San Diego California with openings under each shake along the rake edge of the roof at the gable ends of my house. There's no drip edge, i.e. under the shakes I have roofing paper (now somewhat curled) that runs more or less up to and rests right atop the fascia board. Because I have skip sheathing, and since the cross section of a shake is a wedge that is up to one inch at the upper, thick end, this appears to create many huge entry points along the rake edges even though the sheathing is rabbeted into the fascia board. As a result, I'm thinking of getting a UV blacklight to use outside the house to sleuth for urine stains along the upper edge of the gable end shakes and fascia boards. My question is, how easily does the winter rain wash away the urine, rendering this a pointless exercise? 2) I noticed a new product called "rat-out gel" and was thinking of applying it along the rake edges mentioned above. Or, maybe I should just buy many rolls of X-Clude and use that instead. Or maybe both. Any comment? Thanks very much for your website, Doug
My response: First off, I do not have experience using UV lights to detect rat urine. But I do suspect that rain will severely limit the effectiveness of this approach. I have never heard of Rat-Out Gel or XClude, but I typically stick to physical barriers rather than repellent type devices. If your roof makes this impossible, you might have a tough time keeping the rats out.
San Diego Rat Control Tip of The Week
What Is The Fastest Way To Get Rid Of Rats?
Rats are not animals anyone should have in their homes. These rodents can wreak havoc on your beautiful home when allowed to breed and multiply. If you are lucky enough to realize you have a rat problem quickly, the best thing you can do is to look for the fastest way to get rid of them before they begin to increase in number to something beyond what you can contain.
When it comes to the fastest way to get rid of rats, snap traps are considered one of the fastest. This might seem like a very old method of getting rid of rats, but the fact is that it still works better than many of the newly designed rat removal methods out there.
A snap trap is a trap with a wooden platform and a spring-loaded bar that snaps immediately a rat comes in contact with the bait that was placed on it. In the process of trying to nibble or steal the bait from the trap, it will get caught by the neck and killed immediately.
One of the major reasons why snap traps are considered the fastest way to get rid of rat is that when it traps a rat, it can be reused immediately. Provided you have a good bait in place that can help you to attract rats to the snap trap, you will also be able to trap rats and remove them from your home without wasting too much time.
Also, snap traps are humane, affordable, and easy to use.
